While She Sleeps
by The Jack of Spades
Summary: Confrontation leads to a very heated moment. Aeris⁄Seph, kinda dark


_While She Sleeps_  
by Kitt  
  
  
(Insert all the legal crud about how I don't own the characters of FF7 here.)

  
  
  


She was a Cetra, and like all Cetra the powers of the Planet enabled her to do wondrous things. Thus she heedlessly ignored the warnings of the villagers when they told her of the forest's dangers. It was asleep, they said, and she didn't have what it took to make it rise. 

So they thought, for to them she appeared to be little more than an average young woman. Well, perhaps more than average, leaning very heavily toward the prettier side of the scope, but nevertheless, she didn't have the word "Ancient" or "Cetra" scrawled on her forehead. 

The moment she entered the so-called Sleeping Forest, Aeris asked the Planet to wake it and the Planet complied. 

She smiled, but it wasn't an entirely happy gesture. No, she had too much on her mind to be happy. 

_I'll be all right, Cloud,_ she spoke to the ex-SOLDIER. She knew he could hear her too. _Everything will be just fine._

She had forgiven him for his earlier assault on her; she knew it hadn't been his doing. The utter lack of control, the glaring insanity in his eyes was her proof. 

To make sure that things were indeed as fine as she said, Aeris reached up and gently fingered the bow in her hair. Nestled within its folds, almost by way of a magical trick, was the materia of utmost importance. The feel of it being there, in place, made her journey a bit lighter. 

Aeris turned and walked deeper into the forest, watching impassively as the Planet opened the path up before her. Entire trees had vanished and grassy knolls turned into winding paths, flanked by ferns. 

She heard voices from behind---no, a single voice, a man's voice. She knew who it was, but she wasn't frightened. Her footsteps were tributes to her sureness as she marched onward, ever forward, never once looking back.

* * *

The Sleeping Forest knew not night or day; time was meaningless in its depths. Aeris had been following the path for hours now, and she knew that it was time to stop for a bit. Although she was very close to the Forgotten City, her eyelids were heavy and her feet were stumbling. Just a little nap, a few moments of shut-eye, that was all she needed. She'd need all her strength for the task ahead. 

She chose a spot to rest at that wasn't marked by any significant foliage or flowers. Up against a tree it was, beneath a dark canopy of broad leaves. Through them shone an eerie light from above, a light that reminded Aeris of Lifestream. This was a forest of the Cetra's making, no doubt. Perhaps it had been created to camouflage the Forgotten City from unwanted visitors. 

The grass beneath her was soft, inviting, more evidence of how beautiful the Planet was and what beautiful things grew on its back. 

She was sitting now against the tree trunk, her eyes slowly closing. The forest sang to her while she drifted off, its melody lulling, strange, and energizing all at once. A thousand different voices, the voices of those long passed, each singing their own tune and yet still managing to blend in with the rest. 

Aeris wanted to feel content. She wanted to pretend she was simply going through such a lovely forest for the sake of passing through, but she knew better. Much better. And that was the thorn in the paw of her comfort. 

The tree trunk was awfully hard and soon Aeris found it more desirable to simply stretch out on the grass beside it, where her sleep would be more comfortable. The song of the forest was still in her ears and she soon picked up a rather foreboding melody. It was deep, dark, and it told her that sleeping where she was, right then and there, was the worst thing she could do. 

Aeris forced her eyes open. _What is it? What are you telling me?_

The response she got was frightening: All the voices, the singing tones, jumbled together. They were shouting at her. It was like a child banging on piano keys, creating not music but noise. 

_I can't hear you...!_

She sat upright. If she listened longer, then maybe things would become clear. She even thought about getting back up and pushing on in spite of her weariness. 

_...Of course. It's him, isn't it? He's here?_ She could only assume, but who else could it be? What other danger could possibly lurk where she was? 

The answer was more noise, and it grew louder and louder, pounding inside her head. Now it sounded like the drums of war, the cadence of battle. 

Aeris' hands flew to her temples. She had to block out the noise, she had to... _Stop it, stop it!_

The drumming grew louder still. 

_Please, just STOP!_

Louder, louder... It was deafening now. Then, without warning, it stopped. There was silence. 

But it came too late, as Aeris had already blacked out.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Poor, vulnerable Cetra. 

Her vulnerability lay in her current state, tired, overwhelmed, and now unconscious. She was vulnerable to him, and he could approach her in any way he saw fit to get what he wanted...which was to stop her before she stopped him. 

Killing quickly, thoughtlessly, was always an option. Sephiroth had already taken that path with one of the Turks back in the Temple. It was his most recent individual murder, however indirect. 

But he didn't want to bring the Masamune down on the Cetra there just yet, not while he had the chance to take advantage of her, to play God for a bit and mess with her mind. Torturing others had been a release for him ever since he'd cracked. Making others suffer was a way of releasing anger at the world, of showing them the bitter reality that was pain, suffering, and manipulation. He'd been used and deceived and hurt himself far too many times. 

He watched her for a time, much in the same way that a predator would watch its prey. She was a beautiful Ancient, as beautiful as one of the Planet's heirs should be. Her eyes were the color of Lifestream and her hair a light shade of maple with just a hint of gold, maybe representative of the sun. Green and brown, the color of living things. This Cetra was life. 

Soon, life would be him. Everything would be him. She would be in him and he in her. 

The thought soon had him going on a mental tangent of being in her in the literal sense. He stopped himself. It was very possible to an extent, in a sense beyond mortal perception, wasn't it? Considering how open she was then, how unprotected? There was no way she could stop him, and he would make it so that she would not want him to stop. 

And then, perhaps when he was finished, he would take her life, the final curtain of their act of passion. 

She was dreaming now. He could taste the fears that played throughout her mind and he relished them. He was one of those fears. 

Beautiful, beautiful Ancient... 

Sephiroth smiled, but unlike Aeris' smile of earlier, his was indeed a very happy gesture.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Aeris' mind ran a mile a minute while her body slept. The awful noise in her head had ceased, but she could not dispel the dread that gripped her, and she suffered for its warning. 

She dreamt, and in one dream her eyes opened. She was still in the Sleeping Forest, right where she had been when she was awake last, beside the mammoth trunk of an oak tree. 

Everything looked all right, but at the same time it looked different, softer. She moved her arm; a few stray blades of grass brushed her skin and a thought skimmed through her head to just reach out and touch it. 

She was a little confused. _Touch it? _

(yes) 

Aeris raised her hand. Her fingertips delicately brushed a few blades of nearby grass and started a strange reaction inside her. Something startling shot through her, racing through the core of feeling. When the sensation passed, she felt...hot. Hot and longing for it to happen to her all over again. There was an ache from deep inside, a throbbing, a longing. 

"No..." The word just fell from her mouth. It echoed throughout the forest as if disembodied. For a moment Aeris doubted the sound of her own voice. _He's here. I can feel him. _

(maybe) 

Yes, he had to be. Sephiroth's will was far too strong and it always betrayed his presence. The silence that preceded him made him all the more frightening. 

But what was he doing? The sudden good feeling was wiped away, now a thin disguise for some terrible temptation---a temptation she was a bit too willing to give in to, considering how she felt the urge to wait for him then, to just lie there and let him come. 

Then realization struck. 

"It's all a dream," Aeris said aloud. And it was. Sephiroth wasn't really there; only some form of his will was. 

He actually answered her then. "You're very right; it _is_ just a dream." 

Aeris looked around herself. She couldn't see him. "Where are you?" 

"Where you'd rather have me right now---out of your sight." 

That wasn't necessarily true at that point. Aeris wanted him around then, but only because through her vulnerability she was falling under his spell. Instinctively she reached for her bow, for the White Materia concealed within. The feel of that would bring her back to reality. It would wake her up. 

She reached, and was stopped by the sensation of her body shuddering viciously. There were no hands near her, no sight of anyone around, but there she was, climaxing. When it passed, she was left feeling afraid and confused and exposed. 

But it was still just a dream, just a figment of his twisted imagination. He had no connection to her, no way of truly manipulating her. He could only take advantage of her while she slept. 

"Why don't you show yourself?" she managed, trying to regain her breath. She felt so hot then, and the feeling was driving her crazy. "What are you doing?" 

"I'm doing _you_." His voice was deep, deep enough to further invoke that aura of mystery that was such a large part of his nature. He sounded as though he was speaking a fact and nothing more, a solid piece of evidence with no emotional strings attached. 

Lust held Aeris in a bind and she feared it more than anything at the moment. This wasn't real. It couldn't be. "No, no you can't." 

"Yes, yes I can." 

"No..." 

"Yes." 

"No!" 

"Don't argue with me." 

His tone held unswayable conviction. Aeris said nothing then, but she was still torn. If he wanted to manipulate her so badly, then she'd fight him through every step of the process. But at the same time, she wanted to give in to him. She wanted him to come and make her relive those last few moments of absolute pleasure. Her battle could very well be a lost cause. 

She realized that she was breathing heavily again. She tried to calm herself. "I'm not afraid of you, Sephiroth. I'm not afraid of you, because this is all just a dream." 

"Dreams have their own ties to reality." He spoke so calmly in the face of her distress that it was irritating. 

"Go away," Aeris bade him wearily, still panting, sweating now. "Get out! Go! I wouldn't even be here if I feared you, so don't bother wasting your time!" 

"Silly Cetra..." 

The wind whispered through the trees and for a moment everything stopped. Aeris no longer felt her own breathing. She panicked, but then she remembered. It was still just a dream; that much hadn't changed. It couldn't have. If she kept assuring herself of that, she couldn't go wrong. 

Sephiroth, meanwhile, was smiling at her again. She was close to him then, so close. Out of the blue he leaned over her, his sudden appearance marked by a wave of silver hair splashing down his shoulders. He watched Aeris gasp, then grow tight-lipped, her eyes two angry warning signs. _Back off,_ they read. 

Back off? Never in life. She was beneath him now, his for the taking, his for the killing. He would dispose of her and her White Materia. Then no one would be able to summon Holy and things would go as planned. 

Looking up at him, Aeris felt defiant, angry, and helpless all at once. Looming over her was the unusually perfect leather-clad body of a mad angel, something that, taken superficially, could have easily been seen as the god he wanted to become. His eyes were empty, windows to a broken soul and complete insanity. Did he know what he was doing? Did hurting, torturing, or killing even affect him anymore? 

Had those things ever affected him? 

Aeris' right hand twitched a bit, then began to rise, reaching up to the angel's face. She willed herself to stop, but she couldn't. How could she work her will when half of it was set against her? 

Sephiroth watched her, smiling still. Aeris scowled. 

Her palm met the chiseled line of his cheekbone. His skin was warm, flawless, nearly too much so to be human. He had lost his humanity; he had sold his soul years ago to buy into more lies. 

Her eyes were drawn to his like metal to magnet. His look was pleading, wanting to feel more of her. She obeyed and ran her hand over his jaw and down along his neck to his chest. He stood perfectly still the entire time. 

"Just a dream?" Aeris repeated, although this time it was a question. 

"Dream on," Sephiroth urged her. He brought his face closer to hers. His lips were just barely touching her own. He whispered "keep dreaming" and kissed her fully. And he was kissed back. His tongue traced her lips delicately, eager to be able to go deeper. 

Part of Aeris made to turn away from him, and part of Aeris opened her mouth just wide enough to let him in. His tongue coaxed her own to play with him and it obeyed. They intertwined and stroked and danced and Aeris felt her will to stop everything die, slowly. 

_Can't... _

(can) 

Sephiroth left her mouth then and dove for her neck, where his lips fell softly. 

_(WILL) _

Will? 

Aeris shuddered; his lips were frighteningly warm as they passed over her skin. She was melting underneath him. 

_Will... No, can't. Can't._

Sephiroth's fingers reached for her hair, stroking it, trailing back to the bow that held her braid together. His fingertips played over the knot while he continued to kiss her neck. He pressed down against her and their hips came together. His coat came down and around their waists. The smell of leather, the sound of it creaking as he moved, the odd shimmer of his hair---how shockingly realistic for a dream. 

He tugged at her bow now, no longer kissing her neck but whispering in her ear, "Is it in here? It is, isn't it? That's where you hide it, right? Let me have it. I know what to do with it. Let me have it." 

There was a voice in Aeris' mind and it made her blood run cold: _Don't give it to him, don't give it to him! _

Yes, can't. And won't. 

Sephiroth tugged harder and the bow came undone. "That's it..." 

Yes, that was it. Aeris forced herself upright, in the process forcing Sephiroth to sit up as well. "Yes, that's it. I'm waking up now." 

Her eyes opened, and Sephiroth was gone. 

She was lying on the grass just like last time. For a moment then she doubted her victory, but then things became clearer to her. She felt afraid then. Wouldn't he be angry with her now, for pushing him away? Wouldn't he try to strike back, to get even? She sat up, her head swimming. She looked about herself. There was the path that the Planet had opened up for her. The trees were still in place; everything was as it should be. And she felt better. Her skin was no longer hot and sweaty and she couldn't feel a trace of his kissing anywhere. She could still feel some lingering desire, but it was fading away. 

Sephiroth's presence was gone. It was all finished, even if it never really happened. 

Her hair felt loosened, however. Instinctively Aeris raised a hand to assure herself of the bow and the materia it concealed. 

It wasn't there. 

Panic grabbed at her. She skimmed the grass around her with her eyes, again. 

There it was, where her head had been lying, crumpled in a little pink heap. And lying next to it was the White Materia. 

Immediately Aeris gathered the bow and the materia and put everything back into place, back into her hair where it all belonged. Her eyes trailed over to the path ahead. She knew it without directly thinking it: Naptime was over.

  
  
  
  
  


_My first contribution to the world of Aeris/Seph, and not the last either... I tried to make it tie in with the game as best I could._


End file.
